Album Review: Volition by Protest the Hero

Even with all the editorials published and industry opinions offered claiming that crowd funding is the way of the future, the science is still far from exact. For every Chimaira, who more than doubled their thirty thousand dollar goal for a "fan" CD/DVD edition of Crown of Phantoms, there's an Orgy, who with thirty one hours left at the time of this writing have only raised around eight grand of a hoped for hundred grand to start their own label and make a new record. Even with that caveat, the fact that Protest the Hero turned a hundred and twenty five thousand dollar goal into nearly three times that amount understandably generated a lot of press, and probably lent a fair bit of credence to pro-crowd funders. But, as a wise man once said, mo' money equals mo' problems. With the overwhelming amount of press attention and the heightened level of fan anticipation, it would be easy for Volition to end up a disappointment or perhaps inversely overrated. As someone with no expectations, in fact not even becoming familiar with the band until the campaign was launched, I just went in with the standard hope to come out with a positive experience.

That sound you hear? That's the hyperbole train a'comin'.

I've never quite been able to understand the "math metal" subgenre. All those unique time signatures and staccato patterns are great, but in the case of, say, The Dillinger Escape Plan, whose fans should be prepared for some possible blasphemy in a moment, they never seemed to add up to a cohesive whole. It essentially became a whole lot of white noise. White noise, mind you, that I'm sure would make for an intense and thrilling live experience, a supposition seemingly confirmed by the amount of blood, sweat, and tears the band has actually been recorded shedding during shows, but noise that also becomes frustrating on a record in my opinion. Protest the Hero's guitar players, Luke Hoskin and Tim Millar, conjure up memories of attempts at getting into math metal, but carry them through to the conclusion that was always the hope. Their dexterous fingers seem to leave no fret untouched, yet they never lose track of important building blocks like structure and technique. It would require a hell of a rhythm section to keep up with them, and luckily bass player Arif Mirabdolbaghi (I not only checked the spelling before typing that, but during the typing of it as well) and percussion legend Chris Adler of Lamb of God prove more than capable of providing the low end on this adventure. The MVP of this whole affair though is by far vocalist Rody Walker. Research has determined that in the past, Walker's vocal style has tended towards screams and growls, and the switch to clean vocals is a fairly new endeavor. Walker gives both camps what they want on this release though, and his fast paced switches from guttural screams to higher pitched clean melodies are never unconvincing. Either group stands to be very pleased. His lyrics occasionally leave something to be desired, as much as I'm behind the stance in theory I can't say his advocacy for pit bulls on "A Life Embossed" will be convincing anybody, but the delivery sells even the subpar lines.

The oddball artwork and promotional stills might put off some metal fans, probably the same people that appreciate Nolan's Batman films because they're "dark and real like Batman should be", but make no mistake, this is one of the best albums of the year, and one you absolutely cannot miss.

Album Review: The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart by Sepultura

 

 

Ordinarily, changes on Facebook pass with little to no reaction from me. Outside of a total overhaul of the interface, they rarely seem to be as big of a deal as people make them out to be. There is one though that has always bothered me: the switch from being able to put your favorite films, books, and music in your own words to having to link them to the pages for those works. Why? Because upon my joining the social network, I originally put Max Cavalera-era (rhyme totally intended) Sepultura in that list. From the original Bestial Devastation EP up through their best known work Roots, Sepultura during Max's tenure has to be included in any discussion of the greatest bands in the heavy metal genre. That is an insane streak of albums for any genre actually. Then, as a result of internal upheaval, Max left and created Soulfly, and both that group and Sepultura have been struggling, in my opinion, ever since. Soulfly has at least been interesting in the midst of that struggle though. Regardless of the resulting album, the experimentation that has been a major component of Soulfly is interesting enough to warrant listening through an album once, even if you never return to it. Sepultura, after a few attempts to retain the Roots vibe and magic, have seemingly just become more and more generic and fallen further and further down the totem pole, losing Igor Cavalera in the process. This latest effort, whose title I'm simply going to break down to Mediator because there's not a chance that I'm going to type out that whole title every time it comes up, is seemingly an attempt to do a hard about face back towards their previous, more celebrated works. Ross Robinson, nu-metal innovator and producer of Roots, has returned in an effort to, in his words, "smoke" his previous collaboration with the band. After a few albums without one, Mediator features a prominent guest appearance, that being ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. So, once again the angels of better nature are ignored, and a Sepultura album hits the player. Did the curiousity pay off, or is this a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me scenario?

 

Well, performance wise, it paid off a bit more than I expected it to. This is a really solid slab of good old fashioned thrash/death metal. Faster than the last couple Sep albums I've heard (although, as previously mentioned, it has been a while), Andreas Kisser really rips it up on this album. He's given plenty of opportunities to both soar out on a solo or shred maniacally and make you wonder what kind of shape the guitar is left in when he's done. Paulo's bass is still there reliably rumbling away in the background as well, just like nothing ever changed. Derrick Green, who has never been the problem with the latter days of the band but became an easy scapegoat as his hiring marked the turning point, sounds properly demonic and horrifying, a better vocalist now that he's been given longer passages to stretch out screams over than the more Roots-inspired nu-metal on his first couple of efforts. New drummer Eloy Casagrande doesn't fare quite as well as his cohorts, and is especially outdone by the Lombardo cameo, but his performance rarely distracts. If anything distracts on this end, it's the mix unfortunately. Ross Robinson's mixes are characteristically dirtier, a bit more raw, but this one ends up suffering for it. Perhaps an issue of budget/equipment, or an artistic choice, it's hard to say. In either case, the album could stand to be a bit cleaner, and some of the instruments could stand to be a bit more balanced. You really have to listen for that Lombardo appearance with how low the drums are.

 

The biggest problem though, comes at the end of the experience. After all these great performances, what is it all in service of? What is this experience all about? Green-era Sepultura has been aiming for some big things as of late, with concept albums based on works as sacred as The Divine Comedy and as notorious as A Clockwork Orange. I can't speak to those albums' treatment of the source material, but Mediator is apparently "inspired" by Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, a film I am very familiar with, and I have to say, this album is about as linked to Metropolis as it is to Mallrats. Both have points to make about consumer culture, and so does Mediator, but the points made on the latter are so generic that they could've been inspired by either of the former choices. I can't say Max Cavalera is one of history's great thinkers, but under his reign there was at least a sense of identity and character to those records. There was an ethos behind it. The latter day works, perhaps inspired by the dismissive reactions to the early attempts to follow up and duplicate Roots, are aiming for a much wider array of topics and targets and successfully hitting very few of them. It's hard to get a sense of the ethos of the band at this point, unless they really are that generic without a few key members. Somewhat improbably, I still find myself hoping that there is more to modern Sepultura that they have for one reason or another failed at summing up or accessing. Whether I will be willing to listen to another attempt, I can't say at this point. I guess based on Mediator it wouldn't hurt though. It will at least be performed competently.

 





Concert Review: Eye Empire, Mindset Evolution, True Becoming, Danger Casanova, and False Advertisement at the O.N.E. in Mandan, ND 10/19/13

Apologies for the particularly fuzzy quality of the pictures in this review. I will make no bones about my amateur at best skills as a photographer, that much should be evident by now, but with all the lights and a smoke machine going off essentially right in front of my face it got particularly difficult to capture any good images.

Sometimes, all it takes is name recognition. Eye Empire is a name that has been floating around for a while, but without having gone out of the way to listen to them, and without any rock radio in my life I don't casually come across bands that often, all there was to the decision to see them was name recognition. Upon discovering at the show that the bass player is Corey Lowery, brother of Sevendust's Clint Lowery, the recognition made even more sense. As important as promotional materials can be to some, to others, all it takes is a simple name or two.

 

 

Apologies to False Advertisement (and Matt Damon), we ran out of time and were unable to make their set, but the first band of our evening was another familiar name. When I last caught Danger Casanova, I lamented the lack of an album to immediately fill my ears with more of their infectious throwback cock rock. Thankfully, in the interim they've released one, so another fantastic performance did not leave me wanting for too long. I remain impressed at the sheer level of charisma and attitude this band can project without sidelining or losing track of their instrumental chops. If anything, they were even tighter this time around. Having a drunk woman in the front row grabbing crotches might derail some bands, but for Danger Casanova, I'm sure it's just another bit of stage dressing.

 

 

While the business of national versus local acts is certainly well understood, if anything placing Danger Casanova that early on the bill sabotaged the next couple of acts. I had no problem at all with True Becoming's performance. The band made its blue collar, down home rock and roll style very evident immediately and the singer was rather impressive. But after the high energy of Casanova, there was a certain level of downturn to only giving a fine performance. There didn't seem to be any real attempts at flair, any effort to stand out. If they'd been placed lower on the bill, perhaps this wouldn't have stood out as much, but coming after a high energy opener, it creates a problem.

 

 

I can't say that Mindset Evolution were much more impressive in terms of energy, but that was the least of their problems. For some reason, after two acts that sounded just fine, the mix took a turn for the worse almost as soon as Mindset took the stage. For the first couple of songs there was all sorts of microphone feedback coming off the lead vocal mic. Once the feedback was fixed, every mic, four of the five members had vocal parts, became simply too quiet which made for a confusing, muddled sound.  The instrumental mix was never really adjusted, making for soft guitars and an overly loud bass that tended to degenerate to fuzz if played fast enough. The drums were about the only highpoint of the mix, which was fine by me because the drummer was easily the most standout performer on the stage. The lead guitarist attempted solos that probably would've come off as flashy and impressive if we could hear them, so points for the effort there. The vocalist filled a lot of the spaces between songs with what I assume were supposed to be inspirational speeches, but when we could barely hear him these long stretches really killed whatever momentum they were attempting to build up. Poor sound quality isn't a band's fault, but I find it hard to believe that they weren't picking up on any of the difficulties on the monitors and made no attempt to adjust. Whoever was at fault, it definitely wasn't what you wanted second from the top of the bill.

 

 

Thankfully, Eye Empire is apparently a band that is more than capable of coming back from the death momentum and flow and restarting a room. Over the course of a nineteen song set, Eye Empire played enough different styles and exhibited enough skill to qualify for a few different subgenres. One of their songs, closer to the end, more than qualified as full out metal. It's rare that I find the bass to be the highlight of a performance because I simply don't have much of an ear for it, but owing to a much better mix and a great performance Corey Lowery's bass lines were top notch. The guitars were a little on the soft side still but there were enough solos and chances to show off the pedalboard that their presence was made known regardless. Vocals were again soft, but the singer had stage presence to spare so it was if nothing else entertaining to see him stalk around the stage and flip what Mohawk he had around like a maniac. Aside from one instance when the band had to stop because the drummer began counting in the wrong song, it was really quite an impressive performance overall. Their second album comes out October 29th, and I will definitely be picking it up.





Album Review: Lightning Bolt by Pearl Jam

In the very first track on Lightning Bolt, entitled Getaway, vocalist Eddie Vedder says "Sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways". Ironic coming from the frontman for Pearl Jam, a band which hasn't had to worry about pleasing people since, well, when was Ten released? Pearl Jam have long held a dominant place in the music industry, a place that has left them one of the few rock acts capable of selling records by the hundreds of thousands. They're perfectly capable of calling the shots, and yet evidentally there's some kind of pressure on the band, enough so at least that Vedder felt the need to sing about it. Well, as ridiculous as that concept might seem, Eddie Vedder could sing pages of the phonebook and make them seem like Biblical texts being sung by angels, so a few ridiculous sentiments won't hurt anyone, and judging by the content of Lightning Bolt the band hasn't caved to anyone. This tenth studio album fits right into the niche carved out by the stalwart Seattle songwriters, to the delight of their fans and to the irritation of whatever detractors they have left.

As someone who can fit into either camp depending on the specific album, I'm left torn in this specific case.

There's nothing really wrong with Lightning Bolt, but unfortunately there's not much that stands out about it either. The best song on the album, an early rocker entitled My Father's Son, feels like it would've ended up a B-side on just about any of the band's earlier albums. Eddie's voice shines on the usual ballads like Sirens and Yellow Moon, but none of the lyrics leave much of a lasting impression. What's worse about the ballads is, in a horrible decision in terms of the album's pacing, three of them are saved for a back to back to back closing of the album. Pearl Jam hasn't really rested on its laurels yet, although Lord knows it could've been. Their last album, 2009's Backspacer, was a somewhat unusually frenetic and energetic affair, so to find so much of this album leaving a general impression of lethargy is that much more disappointing. Undoubtedly, fans will rush out to buy this and cause a sensational opening number that will suggest a successful disc, but I really wonder what lasting effect any of these songs will have on the fanbase. Will people be clamoring to Let the Records Play in a few years, or will they let the majority of these tracks fall by the wayside in favor of more vintage numbers? While I can't say I would be offended to see any of these songs pop up on a setlist, it saddens me to ultimately come to a point where their inclusion would mean nothing to me, a sentiment that is rare for this band.

Film Review: Metallica: Through the Never

Given some of the insane heights Metallica has reached and the kind of success they've had financially, it is a bit surprising that it took until 2013 for them to release a theatrical concert film. One would think somewhere in the middle of year three of touring for the Black Album it would've occurred to somebody. One of the biggest compliments that can be given to Through the Never is even if there had been some kind of big screen release for Binge and Purge back in the day or something along those lines, this still would have enough to it to make it a distinct, memorable experience, not just another Metalli-product that the fans will write off as either not as good as Master of Puppets or just as good as St. Anger. To put it another way, this is a bizarre film, but in the best possible way. Nimrod Antal and Metallica have crafted a surefire cult hit, a 3-D concert film in which the world is apparently ending around the venue, but the rock is so loud and so powerful that no one cares.

Powerful is an even more appropriate term than loud. The spectacle on display in Through the Never's concert scenes goes beyond the songs, the band has brought to the fore one of the most elaborate, massive stage setups I've ever seen. The Ride the Lightning chair lowers from the ceiling to break the fourth wall with arcs of (possibly fake) electricity. Lady Justice is assembled and then demolished within the span of a song. During Enter Sandman (another compliment that should be given to this film is that it represents the first time in years that I heard the intro to Sandman and got excited instead of groaning and walking away) the band stages some kind of malfunction that leads to a level of destruction on stage that could seemingly only be wreaked by a kaiju. It's hard to say if this will become the band's stage setup on a regular basis, suggestions have been made that given the cost it would be a wise move financially, but Nimrod Antal and his cinematographer do a very good job off shooting a beautiful film that will stand up even if these kind of events became a regular occurrence. As the coffin shaped light racks from the Death Magnetic tours close in and begin displaying images around the band, and lasers criss cross the stage, Antal's camera captures an image that is almost otherworldly, in perfect harmony with the bizarre events occurring outside. Admittedly, there is no dramatic weight at all to the "storyline" of Through the Never, and even as eclectic heavy metal inspired images it comes really close to not working. But when Dane DeHaan walks through the streets of Any City USA, past assorted corpses hung from light posts and flaming cop cars, intercut with the band playing the intro of Wherever I May Roam? Those guitar effects have never sounded eerier. By the time DeHaan is on fire and brawling to the thrashy goodness that is Battery, if you're not a captive audience member you were never going to be.

All of this, of course, would be moot if the music sucked. Limp Bizkit has had some elaborate stage sets in the past, but they prove hard to separate from the horror that is being forced to listen to "Nookie". Metallica take rightful knocks for producing...some music that is of a lesser quality. The arguments have gotten boring at this point, we all know St. Anger's not great, and at this point Metallica seems to have gotten that message too. The film's set focuses primarily on older material, even going as far as to start with three songs from Ride the Lightning almost consecutively, and what's more it is older material done well. For the first time possibly since he was hired, Rob Trujillo is a real presence in this film. His bass sounds great, and Cliff Burton would be proud of the work he does in Orion, which plays over the film's credits. Lars Ulrich has not become Dave Lombardo, but he handles himself well. His infamous stage faces provide an intriguing test of the IMAX cameras too. James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's guitars continue to be a force, and Hetfield's voice is in great shape. Metallica, as a unit, are a far cry for the sadness that characterized their last feature film. This is a well oiled machine, fake technical errors aside.

I'd like to think I will have the chance to see Metallica in person one day. There will be a very unhappy teenage boy's essence somewhere in my soul that will not be fulfilled until it gets to chant "DIE, DIE, DIE" during Creeping Death. But, if I don't, this is a very good approximation. There's a deeper fanboy level that could be gone to, one that would include setlist complaints that I try to avoid and nitpicks about changes that have been made to the songs in a live environment that don't work. But that's a rabbit hole that people don't come back from in one mental piece. Through the Never is a damn fine set of live music, a great visual experience, and a downright weird film that is not easily forgotten. At the end of the day, nothing else really matters.

Album Review: Vengeance Falls by Trivium

 

 

I've always wanted to like Trivium. Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu are undeniably very good guitar players, and they bring a level of musicianship that I find to be a cut above most other bands in this genre as of late. But there's always been a certain sense of overexertion to the music, a sense that the band is trying too damn hard to show off. During their set on the Trespass America festival in 2012, there were, if you can believe such a thing, too many solos. Just, too much in general. When David Draiman signed on to produce their sixth full length, most of the Internet metal press seemed to cry out in anguish but hopes were raised here. Draiman's instincts from years of producing Disturbed could refine and strip down Trivium a bit to a happy medium between their overly technical prior efforts and his discography.

 

Well, that much ended up being true, but the album's still not all it could've been, unfortunately.

Musically, my goals and hopes for the album were met. Heafy and Beaulieu still get plenty of chances to show off on their guitars, but not to an excessive degree, and never in a way that distracts or takes away from the overall song. The songs benefit greatly from the overall brevity, and the rhythm section of Paolo Gregoletto (there's a Mediterranean name for you) and the increasingly impressive Nick Augusto get even more of a chance to shine when attention isn't taken so far afield from their work.. Also, Heafy's gone back to his more melodic vocals from the much maligned album The Crusade, which readers will probably guess was a huge plus for me. The vocals were never the problem on The Crusade, the songs were. Heafy's much better off when he's not straining to scream in my opinion. The one downside of the vocals is that Draiman is clearly using some of the same filters and effects that he uses on his own voice which becomes a bit distracting at times. A producer always leaves his own stamp, his own sonic imprint on every album he makes, but Draiman's is visible to an unnecessary degree here. Some dialing back of his trademark sounds or a change might have helped things.

 

Before we get too far away from him though, Heafy's the recipient of the other primary criticism of the album. At best, the lyrics are decent and have enough parts to encourage crowd chanting and singing at concerts, at worst they come off as insipid and repetitive. For example, the last song, appropriately called The End is Nigh, eventually progresses into just repeating the title over and over again, and the rhyme scheme that dominated the lyrics before that wasn't exactly something to look back fondly on either. Trivium's lyrics have never exactly touched me, or affected me in any deep way, but they've also never distracted like this either.

 

Vengeance Falls is by no means terrible, it's just a shame that after six albums Trivium keeps coming back to the same phrase in my mind: close, but no cigar. Close enough that I'll probably keep listening in the hopes that they'll find it, but that begs the question at one point does one give up the fight?

Review: The Paradigm Shift by Korn

It's been a very good year or two to be Brian "Head" Welch. After laboring to build a solo career for eight years and dealing with lineup changes, having the record label he helped start fall apart due to legal issues involving business partners, and dealing with undoubtedly every third person or so asking if he was ever going to get back together with Korn, he at last seemed to find a stable lineup and under the new name Love and Death they've been signed and have begun to finally get some traction in the marketplace.

So, naturally, the best way to celebrate this independent success was to rejoin Korn.

When Welch strode out onto the stage at 2012's Carolina Rebellion festival to play Blind with his former bandmates for the first time in almost a decade, the Internet was rightfully abuzz with people asking if this meant the guitarist was going to return. Ironically, Korn had seemingly just gotten back on their figurative feet after three albums of struggling to experiment and then recapture the magic. 2011's The Path of Totality, a now infamous collaboration with several of the dubstep genre's hottest talents, was a controversial album to some, people who have probably been complaining about the band changing their sound since Life is Peachy but that's beside the point. To those who were willing to listen though it represented a finally confident, assured Korn, one that even seemed to be having fun again. Welch's return on top of the buzz from Totality has put The Paradigm Shift on a level of expectation that people haven't had for a Korn album in probably the better part of a decade.

Those who found the electronic elements of Path of Totality to be an unwelcome change might still be angered by their presence, but they need to look past them. If this isn't what they've been craving for years now, they may never be pleased.

It is startling how little time it takes Paradigm Shift to feel like a return to form. Even from someone who wasn't needing them to, it is so refreshing to hear Korn go back to the good old days and refine them into a modern day form. Munky has done a more than capable job of adjusting to being the only guitar player in a band with songs built around the idea of two guitars and then retooling the sound so as to no longer feel the loss, but having Head play off of him again is such a great feeling. The trademark sections where their guitars seem to be having conversations, one asking and one answering, are such a treat. That teamwork extends the seven string players, Fieldy and Ray have become a much tighter rhythm section than Fieldy and David ever were. Despite personal problems that would've derailed the average person completely Jonathan Davis sounds on top of his game as well. While the heavy has come back, these songs are as melodic and catchy as ever, a mixture that the group struggled with even in the latter days of Head's first tenure in the band. With the electronic elements dialed back to production touches, every song has an added degree of smoothness and technical skill that makes them that much more palatable. In the past the best Korn albums have had a dirty, grungier production style to them that compliments the raw emotional nerves exposed in the songs, but this is a potent melding of a radio friendly sound and the trademark Korn elements without losing the best of either.

There's usually some kind of negative quality to every album, nothing's perfect, but this comes damn near close. I am over the moon for this album, and so excited to have my favorite band operating on this level again. If this isn't in the yearly top ten, I don't know what will be.

Five Finger Death Punch/Escape the Fate/Miss May I/Gemini Syndrome at The Venue in Fargo, ND 10/04/13

Sometimes, you suck it up and go to terrible (in your mind) shows for people. My longtime concert companion Lindsey is heading home to the East Coast in a month and having taken her to several shows that she's had varying degrees of appreciation for, I felt like I owed her one. I'm not sure I wanted that one to be a Five Finger Death Punch show, but beggars can't be choosers and we were and still are short on time. At least one band caught my attention though...

Prior to doing research before this gig Gemini Syndrome as a band name rang no bells, and now my sincere hope is that they will conquer the world one song at a time.

That wording is only slightly exaggerated.

Lux, as an album, has completely put me under its spell, and their live show only served to cement this new obsession. A descendant of alternative metal bands like Deftones and 10 Years (there's a lot of Jesse Hasek in Aaron Townsend's voice) with a polished radio rock sheen on them, Gemini Syndrome manage to overcome the loss of some of their more ethereal effects on CD with a heavier guitar sound while not losing any of Townsend's vocal nuance. As mentioned before, huge things are hopefully in store for this band, and a tour of this profile is certainly a step in the right direction.

 

When Miss May I came through with Killswitch Engage just three months ago, their set was perfectly acceptable, but lacking a certain spirit. Either the previous performance was an off night or the louder, packed room brought out more effort or more enthusiasm from them because that problem was corrected this time around. The songs still aren't particularly great, but that's easy enough to move past when the delivery is this potent. The singer still seemed to struggle when talking to the crowd, if you started a drinking game where you took a shot every time he pointed to the banner and announced the band's name you would've been dead by the end of a seven song set, but this was at least a step up from where they were last time. Who knows? Maybe if they come through for a third time they'll be impressive enough to warrant purchasing an album.

Escape the Fate is never going to get that chance though. One listen through Ungrateful upon release and one set from them and it is abundantly clear that they're terrible. It's a merciful gift that the research process was that short. At least live the music is heavy, as opposed to the CD where it sounds closer to the emo stylings of Fall Out Boy in all aspects, but it was heavy to the point of essentially become fuzzy white noise. The singer was the only part that was actually audible, and he was too hung up on inviting girls in the front few rows to drink with him after to really impress. He did say at one point that he'd arrived in the city a mere thirty minutes before the set due to a late flight, which would be reason enough for a poor performance, but it seems doubtful that he was also running late to the recording of every single song on Ungrateful so there's no inclination to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. If this seems like an overly harsh tirade, you're catching on fast. These guys suck, and yet based on the reaction from the crowd they've got enough reasons to keep doing what they're doing that they'll probably never learn.

 

In my years as a concertgoer, I don't know if I've ever seen a crowd as excited for a band as this sold out crowd was for Five Finger Death Punch. It does seem hard to beat fifteen thousand people screaming for Kiss, but when a room of over a thousand is singing in unison it is effective enough to warrant consideration on that level. It wasn't just for one song either. It was for every song, even the barely weeks old single for an album that doesn't come out until late November. This is a rabid fanbase, and at least at the start of the set I was probably the only one in the room who was firmly in the opposite camp. Five Finger is at least heavier than Avenged Sevenfold, which is a quality and distinction which becomes very important when those are the two bands serving as the widest representation of metal in the popular culture, but the overt to the point of being obnoxious military symbolism and lyrical content and the extreme level of tough guy posturing is about as far opposite as you can get from my value system. After seeing them live, I can't say either of those objections have really changed, but one has to give props to the band for being able to put on a hell of a show. They were actually too good at it, for a room that size the amount of light that their rig put off was almost blinding, but that's really not their fault. The show clearly should have been in a bigger room, but they made the best of it by throwing waters down to people that were visibly having issues with the heat and compaction in the front row and the singer actually went as far as to come down into the crowd (I was unable to see security from as far back as I was, but I can only assume they were even less happy than when Danny from Asking Alexandria leapt over the barricade) at one point to help get a person some breathing room. Actually, for a man who has been the focus of some negative gossip around this area based on past fan experiences, Ivan Moody was really, really...nice! Apparently at some point he promised a drumstick to a girl in the front row, and when she disappeared before the end of the show he made a point of finding a friend of hers and insisting he give it to her. He was nice enough to his fans that he really didn't need to demonstrate his sweet side by pulling up a stool and singing three acoustic songs, but he did much to my amusement. There's a hypocrisy in decrying the tough guy posturing and then laughing at the band when they attempt to slow it down a bit, but the overpowering presence of the former quality makes it really, really hard to accept the latter. Also, the weird electronic assisted drum solo that saw Jeremy Spencer disappearing and then coming back to his throne in a weird Tron-esque outfit topped by a devil mask was...distracting. Again, as with Escape the Fate, the crowd was screaming loud enough to render my complaints moot. Guess I'll just be over here, back in the corner.

It was not a night without headaches, but it was certainly an interesting and worthwhile experience. A Five Finger Death Punch fan was not born, but a degree of appreciation was. One would say that was hopefully enough, but clearly FFDP has enough fans to leave them with the self confidence required to ignore me.

Hold On to Belief: Revisiting Machine Head's Unto the Locust

Today, October 2nd, marked Machine Head's signing to Nuclear Blast Entertainment, their third collaboration with A&R extraordinaire and Roadrunner alumni Monte Connor. There are many substantial bits of business to discuss concerning this news, be it that this is another major name leaving what is left of Roadrunner/Warner Music, the fact that with a lineup change and a label change this could be considered yet another fresh start for the group, or speculation about what this will mean for the artists that remain signed to RR. That isn't what we're talking about here. What follows is a reaction to a disturbing trend seen in the comments on many of the pieces on other sites covering this news. Buried in the press release is a snippet about how Machine Head are returning to the studio shortly to record their eighth studio album, and within many a comment section the general consensus seemed to be that it needed to be a really good album, not because we expect as much from metal royalty, but because Unto the Locust was a disappointment.
It is certainly easy for someone to end up on the wrong side of history, but this simply didn't seem right.

Ultimately, to a certain extent, it's pointless to get riled up about anything in a comment section. Undoubtedly if Unto the Locust had been The Blackening Part 2 a segment of people would've complained, and because it isn't just The Blackening Part 2 another segment of people is now complaining. This is the nature of comment threads on the Internet. But I've heard this from sections of the legitimate press as well, as well as discussion of a disappointing downward trend in ticket sales while on tour. The latter complaint is irrelevant to a discussion of Unto the Locust's quality. The reality is that three years worth of touring and slots with Metallica are going to pale in comparison to headlining tours with much smaller bands, especially when weeks worth of dates have to be cancelled due to Robb Flynn's health problems (including a Fargo show that I was thankfully unable to attend regardless). Machine Head still headlined the Soundwave, Wacken and Bloodstock festivals overseas and did slots at Download, Graspop and Metalcamp in addition to headlining tours over here and nabbing a spot on the major Rockstar Mayhem Festival.

That's entirely too much evidence presented for a point which didn't deserve to be included in this argument, but a proven point is a proven point.

To a certain extent, it could be that Machine Head fans are still frightened of change. Anybody who knows anything about this band probably has a Supercharger joke ready, and rightfully so. Songs from both The Burning Red and Supercharger have survived through the years and have found a place in current live setlists, but as albums, and especially after Burn My Eyes, they're undoubtedly...well, not what people wanted or deserved. As audacious as The Blackening was, it is certainly a brutal metal record through and through. So when Unto the Locust appeared with a sonata complete with choirs and strings, a ballad, and Robb Flynn's children singing, fans might have gotten a little gunshy. Unfortunately, if this is the case, prior mistakes blinded them to a very natural progression. I Am Hell, the aforementioned sonata, is almost punishingly heavy, and the strings only serve to heighten the melancholy. Robb Flynn's children sing on the best song on the album, a classic call to arms anthem called Who We Are. There's also plenty of classic Machine Head grooves on here, particularly in the fist pumping title track. Even the ballad, which is a fairly somber affair in case the title Darkness Within didn't clue you into that fact, isn't a lovelorn tale of past relationships or anything like that. It just proves difficult after even a cursory listen to see what Machine Head fans feel is missing. This isn't a masterpiece, but it's a damn fine album, easily on the level of more beloved efforts like Through the Ashes of Empires and arguably (bear with me) Burn My Eyes. Yet people seem to regard it as a misstep.

Their loss I guess. Here's to the forthcoming album being everything everybody wants it to be. It's almost guaranteed to be a Heavier than Hell favorite.